


Digital Love

by KnifeBinaryPrince



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: A.I. AU, AI AU, Alternate Universe - Artificial Intelligence, Artificial Intelligence, Artificial Intelligence AU, BAMF Keith (Voltron), BAMF Lance (Voltron), Fluff, M/M, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-22
Updated: 2018-08-22
Packaged: 2019-06-30 21:43:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15760293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KnifeBinaryPrince/pseuds/KnifeBinaryPrince
Summary: “All things considered I was here first, therefore this building is mine and you are the trespassers here.” The voice echoed within the room, the hologram pixels shifting slightly.“I’m sorry what?” Pidge said, letting her arm with her bayard fall to the side limply as she stared incredulously at what she assumed was an AI.“I was here first. It’s mine now.” It said again, pixels flickering as if agitated at having to repeat itself.“How?”“Pidge.” Shiro said in warning, trying to clue to her that she shouldn’t be talking to strange AI programs that they found in abandoned temples.“Do I have to explain the dibs rule or are you a human infant?”“Hey!” Pidge shouted, arming a glare towards the talking code.“Oh I apologize, human toddlers are the ones that walk, not infants. My mistake.”“Oh I am so going to-”Shiro pulled on the collar of Pidge’s suit, holding her back from metaphorically kicking the AI’s ass.





	Digital Love

**Author's Note:**

> What even is half the shit and au's I come up with anymore? Honestly like...how are you guys still here?

The temple was quiet, dust motes floating through the air aimlessly, blown by the wind from the now open entrance doors that hadn’t been disturbed in thousands of years. Banners that were stagnant on the walls blew gently, the light adding a sharp glimmer to them that rippled over the fabric as it moved.

 

Allura stared in wonder at the temple and it’s details, the paladins staring with her at the old architecture of the Alteans, marveling at it’s grandeur with wide eyes full of awe and wonder. The detailing was similar to all the other Altean architecture they had been in, white and blue in a nice contrast with black here and there. The lights glowed brightly even after thousands of years of disuse, as if welcoming the newest guests it was built to greet and harbor.

 

They continued walking into the massive structure, the entrance hall decorated with various banners and statues that stood as if they were suspended in time, immaculate and showing no sign of age or wear upon their cold stillness. The statues were lined on either side of the hallway, greeting their long awaited guests with their immense presence.

 

“Anybody else feel like the statues are staring at them or is that just me?” Hunk spoke, his voice sounding loud and echoing against the white walls.

 

“Something’s definitely staring but I don’t know if it’s the statues.” Pidge backed him up, Shiro standing on guard just behind them, eyes flitting around to look for any signs of danger, the feeling of being watched hanging over them all like a heavy cloud of rain. The temple continued to be nothing more than empty as they progressed through the rooms, Allura leading the way, her eyes sparkling as she looked upon the architecture and art that decorated the place from top to bottom. Tears nearly came to her eyes as she viewed the very familiar spaces she hadn’t seen in so long.

 

“It’s beautiful.” She whispered under her breath, Coran placing a hand to her shoulder in comfort, each one taking in the view of a piece of home they’d lost long ago.

 

“Hey Allura, look at this!”

 

The others turned towards one hallway where Pidge’s voice had come from. The green paladin had somehow snuck away from the group without them knowing and had wandered off. When they went to see what she had called them over for they each held in their own gasp of surprise.

 

The hallway was glowing with every color imaginable, the source of it what looked to be holographic images that patterned the walls in a plethora of colors so bright that the paladins themselves glowed with it as well.

 

Each image was different, depicting a picture of a scene in small with patchy glitches that marred and flickered at the edges, some even animated and moving as if they were there in that moment themselves.

 

“What is all this?” Shiro asked to no one in particular, walking with everyone else down the hall to view each image.

 

Different scenes played out before them, battlegrounds of fire and smoke, others of Galran symbols that caused Allura to flinch at the harsh intensity of their light, and scenes of bones awash in red  with a hand caressing the skull, the eerie view of it causing Pidge to stick closer to Shiro and Hunk.

 

As they progressed it got better, immensely so. Scenes of calm waters and vibrant forests flickered in and out in a colorful array. One of the images seemed more detailed than the others, a picture of a shimmering glittery beach with iridescent water lapping at it’s coastline, the orange pink sky reflecting off the waters in an array of colors that didn’t even seem possible.

 

“That…that’s impossible.” Coran spoke, the others turning their attention to both Coran and Allura as they stared at the picture of the shimmering waters.

“What is it?” Shiro asked, Pidge and Hunk moving themselves to look with the two Alteans.

 

“That’s Davrenk, it was a planet destroyed by the Galra over eight thousand years ago.” Allura explained.

 

“Why is that so surprising? Aren’t most planets we hear about from that time usually destroyed?” Pidge butted in, her question awaiting some kind of answer.

 

“Yes but you wouldn’t normally be able to get a picture of it, the waters are so light reflective and iridescent it’s impossible to get a clear shot of anything no matter what, the picture always comes out obscured in someway. The only way there would even be a clear shot of it’s waters like this is if these were…” She trailed off, moving back to glance at the images from before, her eyes widening as a realization came to her. The pictures that were taken looked odd, as if they were shown from someone’s point of view. As if they were…

  
”These aren’t photos, they’re memories.” She whispered, turning to look at the displayed images with the rest of the team, who now looked at them all with a new light.

 

“If that’s the case…just who’s memories are we seeing?” Hunk asked, a nervous edge to his voice.

 

“Maybe they’re through that door.” Pidge piped up, pointing towards the looming doors that stood rather imposing and immense at the end of the lighted hallway.

 

“We’re not really going in there? Are we? We’re not right?” Hunk said, face falling as everyone else started towards it, slumping even when Shiro put a hand on his shoulder meant to be reassuring. “Of course we are.” Hunk said dejectedly, hesitantly following behind the group.

 

“Do you…do you think the memories could be from an Altean?” Allura said quietly, hand just brushing the metal of the doors and whatever lay beyond them, her voice unusually quiet and soft.

 

“I don’t know.” Coran said truthfully, standing next to her to place a hand on the door as well.

 

Pidge turned around to look at the more disturbing images down the entrance of the hall, eyes glancing at the image of the skull with the hand caressing it gently like a lover, a shiver running down her spine as she severely hoped that wasn’t the case.

 

With new determination Allura pushed open the doors, the rush of air flowing inside causing her hair to blow about her like a fog over bay waters in the early morning.

 

The room revealed was spacious and empty, nothing but pillars that reached from floor to ceiling and a pit in the floor that held pulsing blue accent lights.

 

“What…what is this?” Disappointment and question clearly laced Allura’s voice as she stepped deeper within the chambers, eyes looking around for any sign of life.

 

She found none.

 

The others filed in after her, looking around the room in a mix of awe and puzzlement, as the purpose of the room was quite unclear to all of them. Pidge wandered around seemingly aimlessly, scanning different portions of the room and collecting data on whatever the scanners could pick up that her human eyes couldn’t.

 

Her scanner fell to the pit, walking towards the edge to get a closer look into it.

 

“I wouldn’t do that, you could fall in.”

 

Everyone startled and turned towards Pidge, who’d nearly jumped out of her skin at the sound of the voice echoing through the room.

 

“Who was that?” Hunk said, bayard ready and posture rigid, even if his body language was betrayed by the fear held in his voice.

 

“Who’s there?! Show yourself! Now!” Allura yelled, a fire in her eyes as she backed up to complete the makeshift circle that the paladins had formed, bayards in their hands and ready to attack at a moment’s notice.

 

“Hmm…how about you tell me why you’re here and I might just consider it.”

 

“...We received a distress call from the planet over, they were getting strange messages from this planet here and we came to investigate.” Allura answered, “Whoever you are you have broken into a sacred Altean temple and as the princess of Altea I refuse to stand by and allow such a sacrilegious act to be brought upon such a place.“ She added, the others fanning out to try and locate their unknown guest.

 

“If that’s the case you’re the trespassers here.”

 

“What?”

 

The light from the pit pulsed and grew brighter, a hologram of pixels swirling and merging together to form rings that swirled and circled inside of each other, shards forming an outside ring like sun rays, swirling and turning, growing longer and sharper before shrinking again in a pattern. Within the middle of the rings a small glowing orb lay suspended a midst the rings, tiny rectangles of shape cut from it and flowing in and out of the segments in a uniformed pattern, as if an eye was focusing. The accent lights that lit up the walls and along the floors glowed brighter as well, lines appearing to mar the walls and reach up towards the ceiling like vines.

 

“All things considered I was here first, therefore this building is mine and you are the trespassers here.” The voice echoed within the room, the hologram pixels shifting slightly.

 

“I’m sorry what?” Pidge said, letting her arm with her bayard fall to the side limply as she stared incredulously at what she assumed was an AI.

 

“I was here first. It’s mine now.” It said again, pixels flickering as if agitated at having to repeat itself.

 

“How?”

 

“Pidge.” Shiro said in warning, trying to clue to her that she shouldn’t be talking to strange AI programs that they found in abandoned temples.

 

“Do I have to explain the dibs rule or are you a human infant?”

 

“Hey!” Pidge shouted, arming a glare towards the talking code.

 

“Oh I apologize, human toddlers are the ones that walk, not infants. My mistake.”

 

“Oh I am so going to-”

 

Shiro pulled on the collar of Pidge’s suit, holding her back from metaphorically kicking the AI’s ass.

 

“We didn’t mean to trespass, we had no idea someone had already claimed this place.” Shiro said, trying to placate whatever harsh feelings the AI could have harbored for them in that short amount of time.

 

“Imprisoned.” It said.

 

“I’m sorry?” Shiro said, voicing everyone’s reactions.

 

“I didn’t claim this place I was imprisoned here.” It explained, shards moving in a circular, pulsing pattern of blue.

 

“Who would want to imprison an AI, or you? I mean, I’ve only known you for maybe three minutes tops but you seem cool. I mean, you’re not trying to kill us so you’re okay in my book.” Hunk rambled, wringing his hands nervously as the AI’s focus seemed to be drawn to him now.

 

“Were those your memories out there in the hall then?” Allura finally spoke, gesturing towards the open doorway that led to the colorful hall.

 

The AI fell silent, everyone standing by in anticipation as they waited for an answer.

 

“Yes.” It finally spoke, everyone releasing a breath they hadn’t realized they’d been holding.

 

“Who imprisoned you here?” Shiro asked next, the question having been buried in the back of his mind since. It seemed odd someone would imprison an AI in an Altean temple or just imprison one in general. But if they had it had to have been for something serious. The scenario that had happened with the infected crystal in the castle was enough to let Shiro know that even an AI could cause a lot of damage and even very nearly take lives with it.

 

“The Galran Empire.”

 

“Okay that doesn’t make sense, why would the Galra trap you here and why would they choose an Altean temple of all places? Couldn’t they just put you on a memory card and just trash it or something?” Hunk spoke up, a hand to his chin as he thought hard about that specific scenario happening.

 

“They trapped me here in this temple because apparently it was the only thing with enough power and space to hold me, anything else they tried kept burning out and I was created not to be destroyed so easily. And to answer your other question, the reason for my imprisonment lies in the fact I succeeded in wiping out eighty-six percent of the Empire’s known population among their ranks.” The AI answered, it’s blue light shifting with its image that glowed against the shocked faces of the paladins.

 

“Yeah, that sounds like a good reason to lock up an AI for who knows how long to eternity.” Hunk concluded, taking a few steps just behind Shiro to keep as much distance between him and the recently dubbed killer AI.

 

“How?” Coran exclaimed, eyes wide like everyone else as they watched the floating mass of pixels and light shifting gently like ripples of a pond.

 

“How…how could you do that? Aren’t AI’s not supposed to go against their creators? Or hurt anyone for that matter?” Pidge said, eyes wide and shocked as she looked to the AI for an answer.

 

“Rewriting my code was a lot easier than my creator said creating it was. At least, that’s what they made it seem like.” They responded, everyone going quiet at that until Pidge spoke up.

 

“You rewrote your own code?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“You actually rewrote your own code?” She repeated.

 

“Yes, why are you saying it like it’s hard?”

 

“How did an AI gain enough sentience to rewrite their own code and destroy nearly all the galra?” She spoke aloud, face in a puzzled assortment of expressions as she mulled it over.

 

“Not all the galra, all the galran __empire__. I’m not a monster.” Their voice seemed to hold a hard tone to it, one that seemed to stress the unspoken _ _like him__  that was inflected upon the end of it.

 

“So uh…why were you created exactly?” Hunk asked, effectively changing the subject fro something less grim and dark.

 

The AI seemed to perk at that, pixels fluttering and shards spinning a bit faster now, shifting in steady pulses like a heartbeat. “I was created to be the fleet’s main targeting and weapons systems for all of their ships, calibrating the weapons for maximum accuracy and efficiency depending on the ship model and it’s purpose. I was also used to direct power where most efficient and create enhancements to shielding systems as battles progressed to assure a definite victory.” The voice sounded excited to tell them, pixels shifting out into wider rings and circling around the central orb quicker than usual.

 

“What did they call you?” Shiro was the one to ask this time, staring up at the mass of pixels and blue light, the glow washing everyone in a light blue.

 

“They called me Lance.”


End file.
